


Starry night

by Ssarpaijam



Category: Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Gen, Love Confession, Possibly Unrequited Love, Self-Esteem Issues, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-11
Updated: 2018-10-11
Packaged: 2019-07-29 14:52:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16266482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ssarpaijam/pseuds/Ssarpaijam
Summary: A starry night and two lonely souls. Just trying to reach each other, but unable to. The conclusion the night finds, is no conclusion at all. The story goes on, as it all falls apart. But maybe that's a good thing?The hope within him shines through the curtains of despair.





	Starry night

It was another starry night, no clouds in sight and Komaeda was perplexed. There hadn't been a single day with bad weather on the island since they'd arrived. Is that even possible? Honestly, it hadn't just been Hinata who had been rather paranoid at first. In fact, while the other had already stopped suspecting everything out loud, berating others for letting down their guards -- Komaeda was still questioning most things around him, if not all. Tonight happened to be one of those nights those questions and worries were so overwhelming he couldn't even sleep, no matter how much he tried.

Absolutely nothing bad had happened, at all. While that would not worry a normal person, it did Komaeda. It just didn't make any sense, it broke all laws he thought existed regarding his powers. Maybe he had gotten it all wrong this whole time? Komaeda didn't know what to think and thankfully he didn't get the chance to ponder any longer anyway. For someone had joined him.

"Nagito," Hinata started, as he stood next to him. When had he gotten here, Komaeda did not know. He heard the other slump down next to him on the sandy beach, but he still refused to respond back. "Nagito," the boy next to him repeated, voice almost stern in tone, but the sound of the gentle waves washing over the grainy surface below them, softened it just the slightest.

Feeling the other's eyes on him, the pressure getting to him, Komaeda finally gave. "Yes, Hinata-kun?" He asked in return, a deep sigh leaving his lips almost right after. It was a mistake, a tiny crack in his ever-present facade, but it was too late to take it back. To hide.

"Look at me." He did. Hinata was staring at him intensely. How could he look at him without a wavering gaze, Komaeda wondered, but he did not voice that thought out loud. He knew it wouldn't be appreciated. The other boy never did, when he said anything remotely self-deprecating. But how could he not? Someone had to. 

Heavy silence hung in the air, as neither of them continued to speak any further. Perhaps they were both waiting for the other to address it, to speak about whatever it was that was between them, but it didn't matter. At some point the silence broke into his mind as well and he simply sat there staring at the stars, head clear. Wasn't the silence just heavy a moment ago and wasn't he looking at Hinata and not the night sky? Somehow it slowly started to feel comfortable, in a way even familiar. Komaeda reasoned it was because it was Hinata and not someone else sitting next to him.

"Are you worried?" The question came out of nowhere and Komaeda couldn't help, but let out a pathetic, "huh?" Instinctively his head turned towards the voice and he ended up looking at the side profile of the boy next to him, as he often did.

Komaeda let his eyes linger, taking it as a chance to admire his friend's features in full. His short spiky hair and the odd antenna that stuck out; slightly narrowed eyes, that were currently half-lidded, but usually so piercing; his closed mouth, that was current neither a smile or a frown. A look of pure neutrality, but still just as captivating as ever.

Only when his eyes came in contact with the pair of another, did Komaeda realise he had been caught in his staring. Hinata being as kind as he was, did not seem to be bothered, though Komaeda always suspected the other was simply good at hiding his disgust. That's one of the reasons Komaeda likes that boy so much. To think someone would go as far as acting like just the sight of the former didn't make them want to throw up -- It was quite nice.

"You have that distant look on your face again, you know." Komaeda startles once again, brought back by the voice of the person most often in his thoughts. Komaeda laughs dryly, his face guarded by a polite smile, before he answers with his usual, "sorry." Apologizing being so natural to him at this point, that it came out without any hesitancy or though-process behind it.

Hinata opens his mouth, as if he was about to say something, but nothing comes out. After a moment he closes it and simply shakes his head. He almost looks cross with him. Komaeda wouldn't blame him if he was. He should be.

They are back to the silence from before, though it is tense again and not at all comfortable. Komaeda has the distinct feeling he had done something wrong in the moment before, but he was not sure what exactly it had been that had set the other off. Maybe if he wasn't always disgusted by everything he did and said at all times, pinpointing the exact offender would be a lot easier. But alas, maybe in another reality; In a dream far away.

He hears Hinata take a deep breath. "I just want you to talk to me," he then says, as if he was explaining why he was upset with him. Actually, that was probably what it was. "But I am," Komaeda counters, but even he knows it's not true. Words were leaving his mouth, but they were nothing, but empty blabber.

The look that Hinata gives him proves it, he's not satisfied, but he doesn't push it either. He stares into the horizon, tearing away his eyes from the brunet with some difficulty. It's a little blurry where the ocean meets the sky, the distance and darkness making it hard to make out. Something about the colors blurring together is comforting. There's nothing clear about it, just like the chaos that goes on inside his head at most days.

Right now, in that moment though, it was different. What it was exactly.. Well, it had to be Hinata, right? What else could it possibly be, but him? It was always him. It always had been.

_When had it become always?_

A slight shiver shakes through his body, when a sudden gust of wind passes through them. Before he can curl into himself to hold onto the warmth he still possessed, something drapes over his form, covering his bony shoulders. He glances over at the side.

With a frown, Komaeda pleads, "you should take it back or you'll get cold." He ignores it when the other starts to shake his head, a constant when they're together, and removes the jacket from his own frame with shaky hands.

"Stop it," Hinata snaps, although without any actual anger in his words. He grabs the jacket from Komaeda's weak grip and throws it over him once more, locking his eyes with the disapproving ones looking back at him. "We both know you need it more than I do," he explains, forcibly keeping hold of the other's hand to stop it from moving. "Don't even try to deny it."

Feeling another shiver go through his whole body, Komaeda knows that this time it was not from the cold. Mutely he lowers his gaze and lets it fall on their hands. Hands that were connecting them, the two of them. Suddenly it didn't feel so cold anymore, a familiar warmth spreading out from his stomach to the rest of his body, slowly reaching the tip of his fingers and toes. A tingly sensation takes over and a shy smile sneaks it's way onto his unsuspecting face.

Before he could forcibly mask it away, Hinata comments on it, observant as ever. "Hm, what's got you so happy all of a sudden?" he inquires, the pleasant tilt in his voice only aiding in the blooming sensation deep within him.

He sighs through his smile, but doesn't try to hide the genuinity of it for once, by replacing it with a front. Not immediately at least. It anyone deserved to see it, it was Hinata.

Curling his pale fingers around the tanner ones, that were still holding onto his, he whispers, as if uncertain, " _You._ "

It was a confession. He just hoped Hinata didn't perceive it as one. Or maybe he actually wanted him to see the meaning behind that short answer? The fear inside him always suffocated the hope, when it started to rise however and before he could get his hopes up again, he ruined it. Panic struck him. He couldn't help it.

"That someone as amazing as you wants to spend time with trash like me, even after seeing the real me." The small piece of him he had had the sudden courage to show was wiped away from his face, only to be replaced by the usual fake smile that stood there indefinitely. "Someone as talentless and impure as me should never be in the presence of real greatness, like the like of you. The shining example of true ho-" he goes on, starting to ramble thoughtlessly, but a harsh slap straight across his cheek stops him mid-sentence, before he can go on for too long. 

He looks up at the brunet, as he stands up and brushes away the stray grains of sand stuck to his clothes. His eyes are furrowed, mouth in a tight line. Even an idiot like Komaeda could figure out right away that the other is displeased with him.

 _Good_ , he thinks to himself.

Hinata doesn't speak as soon as he stands up though, like Komaeda had been expecting. He in stead looks on as the boy gazes over at vast space above them, dark and alluring, twinkling with little speckles of light. He joins him, his neck straining under the weight of his head, as he looks up.

It's amazing how he always manages to lose himself in the night sky. How his breath slows down and his eyes turn hazy. Everything seems so irrelevant and pointless, apathy taking over. But it feels so nice not to think, not to feel. To feel empty. Except this time he doesn't. It's hard to ignore the presence next to him after all, even if for a few moments he truly did forget about it. But he never does for long.

"I wish you could be as open as the starry sky above us," Hinata muses, "open for anyone to gaze into, to count the stars laying shamelessly for all to see." His voice is breathy, a little dreamy in quality.

Komaeda gulps when he, for the umpteenth time, finds his eyes locked on the other. The shape of the body before him, standing tall and proud, illuminated by the blueish hue of the moon's light; the wind rustling the clothes draped around the form, the hair shapelessly swimming around his head. His mouth slowly falls open, unbeknownst to him, as he takes it all in: The view, the words, the feelings brewing inside him.

"I love you," he breathes out.

And it all stills. It ends then, when Hinata turns to look at him and the sounds start overlapping with each other. Wide eyes fall on him and his whole world falls apart, starts swimming, when he realises what he'd done. What'd he always feared of doing whenever he found himself alone with the other.

"Na-" Hinata starts, but he interrupts. "Haha, just kidding~" the strain in his voice, when he tries to make it happy-go-lucky, quite obvious to anyone with functioning ears.

It's only the starry night sky looming over them, that witnesses the whole scene. That witnesses Komaeda when he makes a run for it. That sees the look on Hinata's face morph from one emotion to the other. And that overlooks the two, as they find their own conclusions, an endless space away from each other. The distance between them, both the one they've created physically and the one still present mentally, is what determines the outcome. The outcome that's still to come.


End file.
